Iowa calls Alford response 'disingenuous'

April 4, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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New UCLA coach Steve Alford said Tuesday that he, while the coach at Iowa, did everything university administrators told him to do in handling of the arrest of a former player. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER

New UCLA coach Steve Alford said Tuesday that he, while the coach at Iowa, did everything university administrators told him to do in handling of the arrest of a former player. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER

LOS ANGELES – The University of Iowa has released a statement stating that the Big Ten school stands by a 2003 investigation, which was critical of then-Hawkeye basketball coach Steve Alford's repeatedly proclaiming Iowa basketball player Pierre Pierce innocent in a felony sexual assault case.

A former Iowa vice president, in an e-mail to the Register, also challenged Alford's veracity and described his characterization of his role in the Pierce scandal as "disingenuous."

The university released the statement in response to comments Alford made this week at a Pauley Pavilion press conference formally introducing him as UCLA's new coach. Alford, in response to a question about the Pierce situation, said he did only what he was instructed to do by the university.

Pierce was arrested in 2002 and charged with felony sexual assault of a female Iowa student athlete. In the weeks after the arrest Alford repeatedly publicly proclaimed Pierce's innocence even after evidence in the case was available and plea bargain negotiations in the case had begun, talks that Alford was not only aware of and but had been consulted about, according to university documents said.

Alford's comments undermined the case against Pierce and were a contributing factor in the prosecutor's decision to agree to a plea bargain in which Pierce pled guilty to assault causing injury, classified as a serious misdemeanor. Pierce also apologized for having inappropriate sexual conduct with victim.

"That was an incident that happened years ago at the University of Iowa and all I can tell you with that situation is I followed everything that the University of Iowa, the administration, the lawyers that were hired, I did every thing I was supposed to do at the University of Iowa in that situation. I followed everything that I was told to do," Alford said when asked about the Pierce matter at the UCLA press conference.

But Alford's assertions were contradicted by the prosecutor in the case and university officials in interviews this week as well a 2003 report following a university investigation into the Pierre scandal.

"While Coach Alford believed he was acting as he had been directed in making the statements he made to the media, one set of those statements – confirming his certainty in Pierce's innocence – implied that he disbelieved and discredited the claims of the student victim, and his words were perceived as reflecting insensitivity to issues of sexual assault and sexual violence," the report said.

The report also found that Alford "was advised by (Iowa athletic director) Bob Bowlsby that he should show support for his player but indicate that he was awaiting the resolution of the legal matter."

In the wake of Alford's comments this week, Iowa officials in a statement reiterated the findings of the 2003 investigation.

"In December 2002, then interim UI President Willard L. 'Sandy' Boyd charged an ad hoc committee with the responsibility to investigate the university's role in the resolution of the criminal case involving former UI student-athlete Pierre Pierce. We stand by the results of that report as issued in April 2003. No additional comments will be made at this time," reads the Iowa statement.

Alford's comments were also contradicted by Ann Rhodes, a former Iowa vice president for university relations, who began teaching the law of intercollegiate athletics at Iowa in 1995 and remains on the school's faculty.

"My direct supervision over the University of Iowa athletic departments ended in 2000 but I was well aware of the circumstances surrounding the facts of Pierre Pierce's criminal behavior and Steve Alford's repeated declarations of his innocence. Mr. Alford's reply was disingenuous," Rhodes wrote in an email after reading Alford's comments this week. "He specifically ignored the advice of university administrators in continuing to portray Pierce as a wronged man and he undermined the prosecution and inflicted untold damage on the victim. In his responses to inquiries, Coach Alford has deviated significantly from the strict line of veracity."

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